Fleet operators and dealers can now offer screen wash in the form of a soluble tablet to reduce plastic use.

The new product is offered by vehicle accessory supplier vGroup International and is included in its vehicle winter pack for fleets.

Instead of drivers typically buying five-litre bottles of screen wash or 500ml of concentrate, the tablet can be mixed with water to make up five litres of the liquid.

The blue raspberry smelling tablets, teal blue in colour, are available in single pod, three-pod or six-pod blister packs.

Individually costing no more than the price of either screen wash or the concentrate, vGroup International chairman Martyn Nash said the new screen wash tablet, which is already advocated by BMW and Nissan in Germany and their franchise dealer networks, was one of the company’s environmentally-friendly answer to reducing the consumption of plastic bottle screen wash and concentrate.

Nash said: “We are in talks with all the major motor manufacturers and vehicle importers in the UK market and we anticipate they will take delivery of the tablets. Similarly, we anticipate all our fleet and contract hire and leasing company customers will migrate to the tablet screen wash. We are also in conversation with leading retailers that we supply to stock the tablets.

“Not only do the tablets save considerable storage space, but advocating their use is good for the environment and good PR for businesses. It is a no-brainer.”

Some 100 million plastic bottles of screen wash are consumed annually by UK motorists - that’s two million plastic bottles per week or an astonishing 285,000 per day - potentially ending up in landfill, being incinerated, or making their way into seas and oceans.

Furthermore, the plastic bottles of screen wash are delivered to UK retailers and garage forecourts on 625,000 pallets, using eight million litres of fuel and two million tonnes of associated additional packaging.